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Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-86861-7 - The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music Edited by Nick Collins and Julio d’Escrivan Frontmatter More information

The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music

Musicians are always quick to adopt and explore new technologies. The fast-paced changes wrought by electriﬁcation, from the microphone via the analogue synthesiser to the laptop computer, have led to a wide diversity of new musical styles and techniques. Electronic music has grown to a broad ﬁeld of investigation, taking in historical movements such as musique concrete` and elektronische musik, and contemporary trends such as electronic dance music and electronica. A fascinating array of composers and inventors have contributed to a diverse set of technologies, practices and music. This book brings together some novel threads through this scene, from the viewpoint of researchers at the forefront of the sonic explorations empowered by electronic technology. The chapters provide accessible and insightful overviews of core topic areas and uncover some hitherto less publicised corners of worldwide movements. Recent areas of intense activity such as audiovisuals, live electronic music, interactivity and network music are actively promoted.

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-86861-7 - The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music Edited by Nick Collins and Julio d’Escrivan Frontmatter More information

The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music

......

edited by Nick Collins and Julio d’Escrivan´

cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao˜ Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York

www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521688659 C Cambridge University Press 2007

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2007

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Contents

List of illustrations and ﬁgures [page vii] Notes on contributors [ix] Acknowledgements [xii] Chronology [xiv]

Introduction Nick Collins and Julio d’Escriv´an [1]

r Part I Electronic music in context 1 The origins of electronic music Andrew Hugill [7] 2 Electronic music and the studio Margaret Schedel [24] 3 Live electronic music Nicolas Collins [38] 4 A history of programming and music Ge Wang [55] Artists’ statements I: [72] Laurie Spiegel [72] Yasunao Tone [73] John Oswald [74] Mathias Gmachl (Farmer’s Manual) [75] Erdem Helvacioglu [76] Pauline Oliveros [76] Chris Jeffs [77] Rodrigo Sigal [77] Mira Calix [78] Denis Smalley [78] Seong-Ah Shin [82] Carsten Nicolai [82] Warren Burt [84] Max Mathews [85]

r Part II Electronic music in practice 5 Interactivity and live computer music Sergi Jord`a [89] 6 Algorithmic composition Karlheinz Essl [107] 7 Live audiovisuals Amy Alexander and Nick Collins [126] 8 Network music Julian Rohrhuber [140] 9 Electronic music and the moving image Julio d’Escriv´an [156] [v]

vi Contents

10 Musical robots and listening machines Nick Collins [171] Artists’ statements II: [185] Kevin Saunderson [185] Kanta Horio [185] Donna Hewitt [186] Alejandro Vi˜nao [186] Bubblyﬁsh [188] Barry Truax [189] Lukas Ligeti (Burkina Electric) [191] Christina Kubisch [191] Murat Ertel [192] Adina Izarra [193] CybOrk [193] Francis Dhomont [194] David Behrman [195] Kevin Blechdom (Kristin Erickson) [196] Karlheinz Stockhausen [198] George E. Lewis [198]

r Part III Analysis and synthesis 11 Computer generation and manipulation of sounds Stefania Seraﬁn [203] 12 The psychology of electronic music Petri Toiviainen [218] 13 Trends in electroacoustic music Natasha Barrett [232]

Notes [256] References [264] Index [280]

Illustrations and ﬁgures

1.1 Russolo’s intonarumori [19] 1.2 Percy Grainger’s Kangaroo Pouch Machine (courtesy of The Percy Grainger Society/Estate) [21] 1.3 Le Corbusier, Iannis Xenakis, Edgard Varese:` Philips Pavilion, 1958 [22] 3.1 Live performance of Speaker Swinging at the Music Gallery, Toronto, 1987 [51] 4.1 A simple Max/MSP patch which synthesises the vowel ‘ahh’ [65] 4.2 The SuperCollider programming environment in action [67] 4.3 The ChucK programming language and environment [69] 4.4 slub in action (photo by Renate Wieser) [70] 5.1 Michel Waisvisz performs with The Hands (photo: Carla van Tijn) [101] 7.1 VJ Olga Mink (Oxygen) (photo: Mark Trash) [134] 8.1 The Wilmington based Tel-musici Company, from the 18 December 1909 issue of Telephony [141] 8.2 Flyer by Rich Gold for the network ensemble The League from 1978, showing the different types of musical data exchange [145] 8.3 Adapted from Shannon’s ‘schematic diagram of a general communication system’ (Shannon 1948) [148] 8.4 The network music ensemble The Hub, 1989 (top photo: Jim Block) and 2006 (bottom photo: Chianan Yen) [151] 8.5 Shared object [152] 8.6 Distributed object [153] 10.1 A schematic of Hsu’s system [176] 11.1 A simple analysis-transformation-synthesis representation based on spectral modelling [210] 11.2 The Karplus–Strong algorithm [213] 11.3 The exciter-resonator approach to physical modelling synthesis [214] 12.1 (a) Schematic presentation of the cochlea; (b) Excitation pattern of basilar membrane for high, medium, and low frequencies; [vii] (c) Auditory pathway; 1. Auditory nerve; 2. Cochlear nucleus;

viii List of illustrations and ﬁgures

3. Superior olive; 4. Lateral lemniscus; 5. Inferior colliculus; 6. Thalamus; 7. Auditory cortex [220] 12.2 (a) Interaural Time Difference. The distance from the sound source (black circle) to the right ear is d = r θ + r sin θ longer than to the left ear, where r denotes the radius of the head and θ the azimuth of the sound source. (b) Interaural Level Difference. Head shadowing reduces the intensity of the sound arriving to the right ear [221] 12.3 (a) Grouping by proximity. A slow sequence of tones with alternating frequencies (left) is perceived as a single stream; the same sequence played twice as fast is perceived as two separate streams; (b) Grouping by common fate. A collection of partials with no frequency modulation is perceived as a single tone (left); when frequency modulation is introduced, tones with similar FM pattern are grouped together, resulting in a percept of three separate tones (right); (c) Principle of ‘old-plus-new heuristic’. Two frequency slides are perceived as separate tones (left); when a tone burst is played between the slides, they are perceived as a single tone [225] 12.4 Response of a resonating oscillator bank to an excerpt from the Scottish folk melody ‘Auld Lang Syne’: a) waveform; b) output of an onset detector; c) outputs of resonating oscillators; d) summed output of all oscillators [230]

Notes on contributors

Amy Alexander is Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego. Her artwork spans the ﬁelds of digital media art and audiovisual performance and has been presented on the Internet, in clubs and on the street, as well as in festivals and museums. Her projects include The Multi-Cultural Recycler (1996), theBot (2000), CueJack (2001), CyberSpaceLand (2003), Scream (2005) and SVEN: Surveillance Video Entertainment Network (2006). She is also a co-founder of the Runme.org software art repository and is active in curating and writing about software art. Natasha Barrett (UK 1972) works as a freelance composer and performer of acousmatic and live electroacoustic music. Her compositional output consists of works for instruments and live electronics, sound installations, dance, theatre, and ani- mation projects, but all energy stems from her acousmatic approach to sound and its spatio-musical potential. Barrett’s projects are frequently commissioned from international organisations and her work has received awards in many of the prominent electroacoustic music competitions. In 2006 she received the Nordic Council Music Prize. Since completing her doctoral composition stud- ies in London (1998) she has lived in Oslo, Norway. For more information: http://www.notam02.no/∼natashab Nick Collins (1975) is a lecturer in computer music at the University of Sussex, and has indulged in both mathematics and instrumental composition in the past. His interests run the gamut of topics in electronic music, but particular specialisms include algorithmic composition, live electronica, machine listening and interactive music systems. He occasionally tours the world as the non-Swedish half of the Swedish audiovisual laptop duo klipp av. Nicolas Collins studied composition with Alvin Lucier, worked for many years with David Tudor, and has collaborated with soloists and ensembles around the world. He lived most of the 1990s in Europe, where he was Visiting Artistic Director of Stichting STEIM (Amsterdam), and a DAAD composer-in-residence in Berlin. He is a Professor in the Department of Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Editor-in-Chief of the Leonardo Music Journal. Recent recordings are available on PlateLunch, Periplum and Apestaartje. His book, Handmade Electronic Music – The Art of Hardware Hacking, was published by Routledge in 2006. Juliod’Escrivan´ is a composer who uses music technology, both for concert music, and initsapplicationstothemovingimage.HehastwicewonprizesattheInternational Electroacoustic Music Competition of Bourges, France. His electroacoustic music has been recorded, broadcast and performed in Europe and the Americas. He has worked extensively in music for TV advertising, documentaries and ﬁlm with [ix]

x Notes on contributors

some incursions into new media. He is a senior lecturer in music at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Karlheinz Essl was born in 1960 in Vienna. Austrian composer, improviser and performer. He studied composition with Friedrich Cerhaˇ and musicology at the Uni- versity of Vienna (doctorate 1989, with a thesis on Anton Webern). Besides writing experimental instrumental music, he performs on his own computer-based electronic instrument, develops algorithmic composition software and creates generative sound and video environments. From 1990–4 he was composer-in-residence at the Darmstadt summer courses, and from 1992–3 he worked as a commissioned composer at IRCAM/Paris. In the period 1995–2006 he taught ‘algorithmic composition’ at the Bruckner-University in Linz. In 2007 he will become professor of composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Andrew Hugill (1957) is Director of the Institute Of Creative Technologies (IOCT) at De Montfort University, Leicester. Between 1976 and 1980, he studied composition with Roger Marsh at the University of Keele. After university he earned a living as a music copyist and as musical assistant at the Operas´ de Lyon and Paris. Hugill’s compositions have been performed and broadcast worldwide. Symphony for Cornwall (1999) used the internet in a ground-breaking way. Hugill’s research is wide ranging and includes ’pataphysics, which is rooted in French literature. He is an Associate Researcher of the Universite´ de Paris, Sorbonne, and his 2006 CD and booklet entitled ’Pataphysics has received rave reviews in almost every European language. Sergi Jorda` (1961), digital luthier (FMOL, reacTable . . .) and improviser, likes to invent new digital musical instruments without forgetting to make music with them. His music has been released on various labels and compilations (Hazard Records, SGAE, MIT Press . . .), he has composed for different instrumental setups (including a brass band) and for films, but he prefers the immediacy and volatility of free improvisation. During the 1990s, he worked extensively in performances and installations in collaboration with other artists (La Fura dels Baus, Marcel.l´ı Antunez´ . . .). He holds a Ph.D. in digital communication and is a researcher of the Music Technology Group of the Pompeu Fabra University, where he teaches computer music, audio programming, HCI and interactive media arts. He has written many articles and two books, and has given workshops, lectured and performed though Europe, Asia and America. Julian Rohrhuber is a German artist and theorist, working in the fields of cultural theory, philosophy and media art. His art projects include installations and performances, film sound tracks, a system for interactive sound programming, and various collaborative and network art pieces. He currently works in a research project at the University of Cologne, and at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, where he teaches algorithmic acoustics and works on art theory, programming and philosophy. Margaret Anne Schedel is a composer and cellist specialising in the creation and performance of ferociously interactive media. While working towards a DMA in music composition at the University of Cincinnati, her thesis, an interactive multimedia opera, A King Listens, premiered at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. She is working towards a certificate in Deep Listening and serves as the

xi Notes on contributors

musical director for Kinesthetech Sense. Margaret sits on the boards of the BEAM Foundation, the EMF Institute, the ICMA, NWEAMO, Organised Sound, and the Women’s Audio Mission. Usually found in the San Francisco bay area, she runs workshops for Making Things. Stefania Seraﬁn is currently associate professor in sound modelling at Aalborg Uni- versity in Copenhagen. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Based Music Theory and Acoustics from CCRMA, Stanford University, and a Master in Acoustics, Signal Processing and Computer Science from IRCAM in Paris. She has been visiting researcher at Cambridge University, Stanford University and KTH in Stockholm, and visiting professor at the University of Virginia. Stefania has published her research on sound synthesis by physical models in the Computer Music Journal, the Journal of New Music Research, Organised Sound, and IEEE Transactions of Speech and Audio Processing, and she presents regularly at the International Com- puter Music Conference (ICMC), New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME), Digital Audio Effects (DAFX), and musical acoustics conferences. Petri Toiviainen is a professor of music at the University of Jyvaskyl¨ a,¨ Finland, with a specialisation in music cognition. He has published numerous articles on computational modelling of music perception and cognition. Currently his research focuses on computational music analysis, music and movement, and modelling of musical emotions. He is the head of the Finnish Centre of Excellence in Inter- disciplinary Music Research, located at the Universities of Jyvaskyl¨ a¨ and Helsinki. Ge Wang received his B.Sc. in computer science from Duke University in 2000 and is a Ph.D. candidate studying with Perry Cook in Computer Science at Princeton University. Ge conducts research in computer music languages, interactive systems for sound synthesis/analysis and musical composition/performance, visualisation of sound, interface design, new performance ensembles (e.g. the Princeton Laptop Orchestra), live coding, and methodologies for education in computer science, computer music, and new media. Ge also composes and performs via various electroacoustic and computer-mediated means.

Acknowledgements

So begins a round of thanks to many individuals, and most especially, those we’ve inevitably forgotten to mention. The editors wish to thank all of the contributors to this book who’ve put up with our requests and editing. Without the chapter authors and the artists who have kindly provided statements, there would hardly be any book to have the honour of editing! Wealso have to say a big thank you speciﬁcally to Vicki Cooper, Becky Jones, Helen Waterhouse, Jo Breeze, Michael Downes and all others associated with the production of the book at Cambridge University Press. For external reviews of chapters we very much appreciate the time and effort of Robert Rowe, Chris Brown, Fredrik Olofsson, Bill Hsu, Alberto de Campo, Bob Gluck, Brian Kane, John Hawks, Michael Scroggins, Curtis Roads and Jøran Rudi. Additional proofreading and comments were provided by a number of the chapter authors. For assistance with obtaining artists’ statements, many thanks to Terumi Narushima, Joana Seguro, Daniel Klemm, Sharen Norden, Kathinka Pasveer, and of course to the various chapter authors, friends and enemies who themselves suggested people and helped us to get in contact with them. Karlheinz Essl wishes to thank Florian Cramer (Rotterdam) for his attendance to discuss the history of algorithmic thinking in philosophy and literature and Jennifer Walshe (Berlin/New York) for proofreading the manuscript. Meg Schedel owes a debt of gratitude to her proofreading parents, Rita and Charles Schedel. JulianRohrhuberappreciatestheimmenselyusefuladvicefrom,andacknowledges the inspirations of, his colleagues. He’d like to thank Anthony Moore, Alberto de Campo, Renate Wieser, Chris Brown, Julio d’Escrivan´ and Nick Collins for their generous interest in his article. He’d also like to express gratitude to Kurd Alsleben, Antje Eske, Jin Hyun Kim, Hannes Holzl,¨ Alex McLean, Frank Worler,¨ Guy van Belle, Georg Hajdu, Maarten Bullynck and many others, who pointed out numerous interesting aspects of networks and network art. Ge Wangwishes to extend hearty thanks to Perry Cook for his teaching and insights on the history of programming and music, to Ananya Misra for providing invaluable feedback from beginning to end, to Mark Ballora for his excellent online history of computer music, to Max Mathews for information and perspective, and to Rebecca Fiebrink, Spencer Salazar and Matt Hoffman for their support. Nick Collins thanks everyone who suffered any editorial attention from him, and acknowledges with great respect and warmth his collaborators and colleagues in the ﬁeld. He particularly welcomes the support and essential input of his co-editor. He also wishes to extend a special thank you to the third person.

[xii]

xiii Acknowledgements

Julio d’Escrivan´ wishes to thank Julian Rohrhuber for his review and suggestions. Also a special thanks to his co-editor, for roping him into this wonderful project and for his invaluable constructive criticism. A warm thanks to Sue Guilmurray from the universitylibraryatARU,Cambridge.And...veryespeciallyhewishestoacknowledge the love, patience and support of Milly, Isa, Mari, Emi and Ana throughout this project.

Chronology

569–475 BC Pythagoras leads the elitist mathematikoi and akousmatikoi 1026 Guido d’Arezzo’s vowel-to-pitch mapping procedure for composing melodies for texts 1626 Francis Bacon describes the ‘sound-house’ in The New Atlantis 1734 Louis Bertrand Castel builds a prototype clavecin oculaire, the first light organ 1738 Jacques de Vaucanson’s flautist automaton is exhibited 1757 Johann Philipp Kirnberger’s Allezeit fertiger Polonoisen und Menuettencomponist (‘The always ready Polonaise and Menuet Composer’), a musical dice game 1761 Jean-Baptiste Delaborde builds the Clave¸cin Electrique in Paris 1843 Lady Lovelace describes the possible musical applications for Charles Babbage’s machine in The Sketch of the Analytical Engine A. Seebeck formulates the rate theory which states that neural firing patterns encode the periodic structure of auditory stimuli 1857 Leon Scott invents the phonoautograph 1864 Innocenzo Manzetti invents a ‘speaking telegraph’ for his musical automaton 1876 Alexander Bell’s (controversial) telephone patent Thomas Edison invents the carbon microphone 1877 Co-invention by Charles Cros and Thomas Edison of the phonograph Ernst Werner von Siemens invents the loudspeaker 1898 Valdemar Poulson patents a magnetic Telegraphone, which can both record and play back sound 1899 William Duddell invents the Singing Arc 1897 Thaddeus Cahill patents the Art of and Apparatus for Generating and Distributing Music Electronically 1906 Cahill finally builds the Telharmonium Lee De Forest invents the triode vacuum tube (which he calls the Audion), allowing controlled amplification; ironically, Cahill could have used this invention to make the Telharmonium much smaller! 1909 The Tel-musici Company combine a telephone exchange with a music room; they are bankrupt within a few years, just like Cahill 1913 Luigi Russolo writes his manifesto The Art of Noises 1919 Lev Termen invents the Theremin 1924 Ottorino Respighi combines a phonograph playing alongside an orchestra in Pini di Roma.

[xiv]

xv Chronology

1928 Fritz Fleumer invents the magnetic tape recorder in Germany Maurice Martenot invents the Ondes Martenot 1929 Friedrich Trautwein invents the Trautonium 1931 First electroacoustic montage is created by the sound department of Paramount Studios in Hollywood, for the film Jekyll and Hyde 1932 In Oskar Fischinger’s film, Tönende Ornamente (Ornament Sound), the soundtrack is created by drawing directly onto the optical soundtrack 1933 The theremin is used by composer Max Steiner to expand the timbral palette of the orchestra in the film King Kong 1936 Varese` publishes his manifesto The Liberation of Sound 1937 John Cage delivers his lecture The Future of Music: CREDO 1938 Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio play successfully deceives its audience into believing a Martian invasion is taking place 1939 Cage begins working with live electronic sound in his piece Imaginary Landscape No. 1 1944 Egyptian-born Halim El-Dabh experiments by electronically processing recordings made with a wire recorder, a medium that predated tape 1946 The Schillinger System of Musical Composition is published posthumously Raymond Scott writes the patent disclosure for the ‘orchestra machine’ 1948 At the French National Radio-Television (RTF), Pierre Schaeffer experiments with mixing pre-recorded sources on various turntables and creates Etude aux Chemins de Fer. The RTF studios host the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) Claude Elwood Shannon publishes A Mathematical Theory of Communication 1951 Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry compose Symphonie pour un homme seule, a landmark in musique concrete` The Studio fur¨ Elektronische Musik at West German National Radio (WDR) is founded Percy Grainger invents the Kangaroo Pouch Machine The Columbia Tape Music Center, in New York, is started by Luenning and Ussachevsky. It would later become the Columbia–Princeton Electronic Music Center in 1959 Louis and Bebe Barron compose Heavenly Menagerie in their studio, months before the more famous Cologne Studio is established Bernard Herrmann uses theremins as main instruments with the film orchestra in his score for The Day the Earth Stood Still Schaeffer investigates spatialisation with the potentiomètre d’espace 1952 Schaeffer publishes a syntax for musique concrete` in the treatise Esquisse d’un solfège concrète Cage composes Williams Mix; the realisation takes a team of tape splicers (in reality, Louis and Bebe Barron) many months

xvi Chronology

1953 In Milan, the Studio di Fonologia is established. In Tokyo the Electronic Music Studio for Japan Radio (NHK) is opened Herbert Eimert composes Struktur 8 1950–4 Varese` composes Déserts, which combines an ensemble of live instrumentalists with tape 1955–9 Lejaren Hiller and Leonard Isaacson experiment with using a mainframe computer to algorithmically generate musical scores, composing the Illiac Suite for string quartet in 1957 1955 Iannis Xenakis publishes The Crisis of Serial Music, critiquing integral serialism on psychological and statistical grounds 1956 Louis and Bebe Barron create the first purely electronic film score for Forbidden Planet In The Netherlands, the Center for Electronic Music is established within the Philips Research Laboratory The BBC Radiophonic Workshop is founded Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge combines concrete` and elektronische Xenakis completes the first granular study – Analogue B 1957 In Warsaw, the Studio Experimentalne is established at Polish National Radio The Bell Telephone Laboratories host the first digital music experiments: Max Mathews programs the first sounds ever generated by a digital computer and creates MUSIC 1, the earliest programming environment for sound synthesis 1958 Xenakis designs the Philips Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair for which Varese` composes Poème électronique; Xenakis also provides ConcrètPH for the interludes between shows In Santiago de Chile, the Laboratorio de Acustica´ is used for the earliest electronic music work done in South America Scott invents and begins development of the Electronium, an algorithmic composing machine without a musical keyboard In Toronto, the University of Toronto Electronic Music Studio is founded 1958–60 Stockhausen works on Kontakte 1960 Andreij Markowski creates, at the Experimental Studio in Warsaw, electronic music and sound design for The Silent Star, directed by Kurt Maetzig Raymond Scott composes a completely electronic soundtrack for the Vicks: Medicated Cough Drops commercial 1961 The Norsk Rikskringkasting (NRK) in Oslo allows its studios to be used for the earliest experiments in electronic music in Norway Kelly and Lochbaum design an algorithm to simulate the human vocal tract James Tenney creates the plunderphonic tape piece Collage #1 (Blue Suede), sampling and manipulating a famous Elvis track

xvii Chronology

1962 In Buenos Aires, the Laboratorio de Musica´ Electronica´ associated to the Instituto Torcuato di Tella is founded; in Ghent, Belgium, the Institut vor Psychoakoestiek en Elektronische Muziek; in East Berlin, the Experimentalstudio fur¨ Kunstliche Klang und Gerauscherzeugung, Laboratorium fur¨ Akustisch-Musikalische Grenzprobleme 1963 Gottfried Michael Koenig’s Projekt 1 program is devised, for automatic aleatoric serial composition 1964 Stockhausen composes Mikrophonie I for amplified and processed tam-tam Jean-Claude Risset visits Bell Labs for the first time and uses MUSIC IV to investigate the timbre of trumpets 1965 Steve Reich creates his first phase piece: It’s Gonna Rain Alvin Lucier creates his Music for Solo Performer, the first live electronics piece to use amplified alpha brainwaves 1967 In Gordon Mumma’s composition Hornpipe (1967) an analogue device analyses and amplifies the resonances of the hall in which a performer is playing the French horn, thus predating interactive machine-listening systems John Chowning discovers Frequency Modulation sound synthesis 1968 MUSIC V becomes the first computer music programming system to be implemented in FORTRAN Tudor composes the first of his Rainforest pieces, featuring a multitude of objects acting as loudspeakers dangling directly from their cables Raymond Scott invents the first ‘drum machine’, Bandito the bongo artist Jean-Claude Risset creates a catalogue of computer-generated sounds at Bell Labs including guidelines to synthesise different musical instruments using MUSIC V; Risset also composes Computer Suite from Little Boy, utilising auditory illusions Wendy Carlos’s Switched-On Bach achieves popular success, promoting Robert Moog’s modular synthesisers Lee Scratch Perry sets up his Upsetter record label – the Jamaican sound system and studio scene is a fertile backdrop for the development of dub and the remix 1969 Max Mathews builds the GROOVE synthesiser, being the first to connect a computer to an analogue synthesiser First performance of Lejaren Hiller and John Cage’s HPSCHD, for massed audiovisual forces Luc Ferrari’s music promenade manipulated field recording 1970 Pierre Boulez founds the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM) 1970–2 François Bayle’s L’expérience acoustique

xviii Chronology

1971 Richard Teitelbaum’s piece Alpha Bean Lima Brain involves the transmission of brain waves by telephone to control jumping beans Walter Carlos creates the electronically instrumental score for A Clockwork Orange by Stanley Kubrick Hiller and Ruiz develop the first computer simulations by physical models, of instrumental sounds John Chowning describes techniques for the computer simulation of moving sound sources that are based on the Doppler effect as well as reverberation effects Tonto’s Expanding Head Band release the psychedelic and progressive Zero Time, composed with the expanded Series III Moog synthesiser 1972 Salvatore Martirano builds the SalMar Construction, a realtime generative electronic music instrument. F. Richard Moore, Gareth Loy, and others at the Computer Audio Research Laboratory (CARL) at University of California at San Diego develop and distribute an open-source, portable system for signal processing and music synthesis, called the CARL System, modelled after UNIX Eduard Artemiev produces the electronic score for Solaris by Andrei Tarkovsky Pong by Atari becomes a mass gaming phenomenon 1973 The Composers inside Electronics collective is formed 1974 Paul De Marinis builds Parrot Pleaser, an automatic music composing circuit intended to be played by a bird Curtis Roads writes a program with MUSIC V implementing granular synthesis François Bayle establishes the Acousmonium loudspeaker orchestra DJ Kool Herc is experimenting with turntable mixing at parties in the Bronx 1974–9 Laurie Spiegel develops the VAMPIRE (Video And Music Program for Interactive Realtime Exploration/Experimentation) system 1975 Michel Waisvisz unleashes the Cracklebox synthesiser John Appleton produces the prototype for the Synclavier 1976 Denis Smalley writes Darkness After Time’s Colours 1977 The League of Automatic Composers is founded by Jim Horton, John Bischoff and Rich Gold. Ben Burtt coins the term ‘sound designer’ to reflect his contribution to the film Star Wars 1978 Atari releases the Atari Video Music audio-visualiser Brian Eno creates the ambient music installation Music for Airports Kraftwerk create their The Man-Machine album, touring with robotic mannequins

xix Chronology

Space Invaders by Toshihiro Nishikado is the first game to have continuous music throughout Trevor Wishart composes Red Bird: A Political Prisoner’s Dream 1979 Merzbow starts his Lowest Music and Arts record label to release his music on cassette 1980 Fonction d’onde formantique (FOF) sound synthesis (or formant wave function synthesis), is developed at IRCAM by Xavier Rodet, Yves Potard and Jean-Baptiste Barriere` 1981 The launch of Music TeleVision; MTV appropriates the existing term VJ for their presenters, starting a parallel use of this descriptor, later fully reclaimed by live club visual artists 1981–8 Boulez works on Répons 1982 David Jaffe’s Silicon Valley Breakdown utilises an extended version of Karplus-Strong synthesis 1983 The Musical Instruments Digital Interface protocol (MIDI) is established The Yamaha DX7 is released and becomes the first widely accessible digital synthesiser Double D and Steinski win a remix competition with the first of their influential cut and paste Lessons Detroit Techno provides one historical strand amongst many of electronic dance music: Juan Atkins had been recording in the duo Cybotron since 1981, and influences included electronic, disco and funk artists such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Parliament 1984 Paul Lansky develops Cmix, later to become RTCmix, an extension for realtime use created by Brad Garton and David Topper Yasunao Tone begins ‘wounding’ CDs through the application of perforated Scotch tape First attempts at automatic accompaniment systems from Roger Dannenberg and Barry Vercoe presented at the International Computer Music Conference at IRCAM The Wabot-2 score reading and keyboard playing robot is completed, the first of a series of musical robots produced at Waseda University 1985 Laurie Spiegel develops Music Mouse Paul Lansky’s Idle Chatter 1986 Csound is originally authored by Barry Vercoe and colleagues at the MIT Media Labs George E. Lewis begins working on the Voyager interactive music system The Akai S900 becomes one of the first (and possibly the most accessible) commercially available sampling modules for mass consumers 1987 The Hierarchical Music Scoring Language (HMSL) is authored by Polansky, Rosenboom and Burk

xx Chronology

1988 Miller Puckette publishes his paper The Patcher; at IRCAM he develops this visual patching system into an interactive computer music programming environment called Max 1989 Public Enemy’s album Fear of a Black Planet demonstrates the power of their sampled hiphop production allied to strong political messages John Oswald releases the Plunderphonic EP and is later forced to ‘recant’, destroying all remaining copies, by the litigious music industry 1990 Max (later Max/MSP) is released commercially, becoming available to non-academic musicians 1991 Nic Collins creates the piece Broken Light by hardware hacking CD players Common Lisp Music (or CLM), a sound synthesis language is written by Bill Schottstaedt at Stanford University 1992 Reed Ghazala starts publishing articles on ‘Circuit Bending’ in the journal Experimental Musical Instruments 1993 Bjork’s¨ Debut is the first example of her many collaborations with electronic dance music producers 1994 Autechre’s anti-EP (particularly the third track, ‘Flutter’) is designed not to repeat in such a way as to confound recent anti-rave legislation 1995 The Synthesis Toolkit (STK), a collection of building blocks for realtime sound synthesis and physical modelling, for the C++ programming language, is authored by Perry Cook and Gary Scavone 1996 James McCartney develops SuperCollider, an environment and programming language for realtime audio synthesis Miller Puckette releases Pure Data,afreewareprogramwitha similar environment to Max/MSP 1997 Coldcut release Let Us Play, an extended CD including the live AV sampling demo Timber Maurice Methot and Hector LaPlante start streaming algorithmic music live on the internet with The Algorithmic Stream Introduction of the Open Sound Control (OSC) network music connectivity protocol Ryoji Ikeda releases +/− 1998 Atau Tanaka and Kaspar Toeplitz install Global String, uniting space with cyberspace The gameboy Nanoloop sequencer is created by Oliver Wittchow Chris Watson releases Outside the circle of fire 2000 Tabletop tangible musical controllers such as SmallFish and Jam-O-Drum begin to develop; they would be followed by others such as the reacTable and the Audiopad Radiohead’s Kid A openly assimilates electronica influences 2000–3000 Jem Finer’s LongPlayer installation intends to run for a thousand years 2001 Chris Chafe’s Network Harp uses network latency for sound synthesis

xxi Chronology

2002 ChucK, an audio synthesis programming language, is created by Ge Wang and Perry Cook The Shazam mobile phone-based automatic music track recognition service is launched 2004 The Firebirds installation by Paul de Marinis reignites the use of gas ﬁre loudspeakers 2005 Nintendo and Toshio Iwai release the Electroplankton interactive musical video game 2006 The Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Legend game widely promotes adaptive audio techniques